Vesttoo appoints Henderson chief commercial officer as CIO Schumaker exits

Start-up risk transfer platform Vesttoo has appointed Julia Henderson as chief commercial officer (CCO) while the business has parted ways with chief investment officer Robert Schumaker who has left after 16 months with the company, The Insurer can reveal.

Henderson already served as a member of Vesttoo’s advisory board, but she has now joined the company on a full-time basis in the newly created CCO role.

During Henderson’s 18-year industry career, the Bermuda-based former reinsurance and ILS underwriter has held senior roles at companies including PartnerRe and Brit Insurance. She spent almost three years at Peak Re as the company’s chief underwriting officer before joining commodity hedging tech platform Stable in 2021 as president and head of portfolio management.

“Julia knows the reinsurance industry inside and out, and there can be no one more fitting to bring Vesttoo’s vision to fruition,” said Yaniv Bertele, CEO and co-founder of Vesttoo in a statement confirming the move.

“Our advisory board has already benefited much from her knowledge and experience, and now she is stepping into a more active leadership role in Vesttoo, in which she will lead business growth and strengthen our momentum going forward, as we expand globally,” Bertele added.

In the new CCO position, Vesttoo said Henderson “will take a leading role in ensuring the company reaches its goals while strengthening the relationships between its various departments and its clients”.

Henderson said Vesttoo “is providing new streams of reinsurance capacity when the industry needs it most”.

“Vesttoo’s solutions are already increasing the flow of capital from the capital markets to the insurance markets. I have been an active proponent of enabling and smoothing this process since I began my career, and Vesttoo’s technology and platform is the ultimate articulation of this flow,” she added.

Schumaker departs

Henderson’s arrival at Vesttoo comes shortly after sources told this publication that CIO Schumaker had left the business.

Capital markets specialist Schumaker joined Vesttoo in May last year from State Street. At Vesttoo Schumaker led the firm’s insurance-linked program, which enables asset managers and pension schemes to earn sustainable alpha by pledging securities to support short- and mid-term life and property and casualty alternative risk transfer transactions.

Schumaker’s next role is not yet known.

It is understood that some of Schumaker’s former responsibilities will be picked up by Henderson.

“Robert Schumaker is a talented leader and the entire Vesttoo team thanks him for helping drive our rapid global expansion and building the foundations of our capital markets team,” a Vesttoo spokesperson told The Insurer.

Vesttoo was established in 2018 and began transacting business in late 2020. The insurtech pitches itself as the first marketplace for non-catastrophe insurance-focused risk transfer and investments.

It uses AI and machine learning to support the transfer of property and casualty (re)insurance, lapse, mortality and longevity risk to the capital markets. Its clients and partners include well-established global insurers, financial institutions and multinational brokers.

Henderson latest senior hire

The company has been building out its operations around the world, and recently opened an office in Japan helmed by general manager Kunihiko Iinuma.

The new office in Japan is the fifth that Vesttoo has opened this year, alongside those in London, Hong Kong, Dubai and Seoul. It also has offices in Tel Aviv and New York.

Iinuma’s arrival came after Vesttoo in July recruited Minas Kalachian from Allianz Risk Transfer as head of structuring, while earlier that same month it hired Rock Lake Advisors’ Javier Rivas, EWM Capital’s Jan Vilhelmsen and East Capital’s Marcus Astrom to form the core of its capital raising team.

ILS industry veteran Stefano Sola joined Vesttoo in June while the same month it added Dan Dijak from AM Re as vice president of insurance markets in the US.

Other notable hires include former Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty UK CEO Brian Kirwan, who joined to lead Vesttoo’s new London office, while ex-AIG Korea CEO Douglas Min heads up its Seoul business. Omar Ali joined from Investbridge Capital to lead its Dubai operation.

Vesttoo in January hired Swiss Re’s Faraz Khan as an insurance-linked program product specialist, while former Swiss Re CEO Jacques Aigrain is chairman of its advisory board.